


Liminal Spaces

by DetectiveRoboRyan, FreezingKaiju, Pupmon1



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Adopted Kjelle, Awakening Kids, Blind Character, F/F, Horror, Lucina's Eye Is Weird, M/M, Middle School, Original Character(s), Panic Attacks, Protective Siblings, Reality Bending, Suspense, Weird...things...ghost-ish things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-01-21 07:28:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12452544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetectiveRoboRyan/pseuds/DetectiveRoboRyan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreezingKaiju/pseuds/FreezingKaiju, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pupmon1/pseuds/Pupmon1
Summary: Of all the days and places for reality to break, nobody really expected September 21 in the quiet Washington suburb of Ylisstol, but...sometimes you just have to roll with whatever life throws at you. Especially when the walls of reality seem to...wear thin, and an unnatural silence spreads across the town.





	1. The Day They Came

**Author's Note:**

> coherent now! All OCS will be explained in Chapter 2.

  
  


It was a foggy day in the town of Ylisstol. Lucina was walking home from school through the woods surrounding the town. It was quiet, very quiet. No patter of rain, no animals, no other people walking with her. The only noise was the sound of the sticks and leaves crunching under her feet.

Still, she couldn’t shake that feeling of being...watched. 

It was silly, of course. She wasn’t a kid anymore, at least not from her point of view...she was in middle school and everything. She wasn’t going to jump at some shadows. She shouldn’t be scared of some boogeyman anymore. There would be the sound of someone following her if she was being watched. There was no one there...

Her left eye twitched. The feeling of being watched got stronger.

Lucina stopped. She could have sworn she saw something move out of the corner of her eye.

“Who’s there?” she called out, looking around cautiously. There was no response, just the same eerie silence. 

Then another little flash of movement, again to her left. She felt a light breeze...as if someone had just run by. She hesitantly looked around, gripping her backpack. This is...this is bad. There was something there. 

As she whirled around, she caught sight of...something. It was large, greyish, blurry and ethereal like a shadow on a window...but shadows didn’t have glowing white eyes that seemed to pierce into her soul. It was only there for a moment before it flickered and faded.

Lucina hesitated for a moment. No...it didn’t disappear. It was just hard to see. As if only half of her was seeing it. Lucina reached up and put her hand over her eye. The creature reappeared, standing a few feet away.

Lucina didn’t hesitate for a second. She bolted, dashing through the forest like her life depended on it down the path that meant home. She didn’t look back to see if the...the  _ creature _ was chasing her.

As the forested, leaf-strewn terrain underneath gave way to the hard, unyielding carpet of worn stone and cracked asphalt, the feeling of being followed lessened and faded...but the eerie quiet remained, the streets she ran along looking forlorn and desolate, the only sounds she could hear being the soft  _ tump-tump-tump  _ of her sneakers on the cracked sidewalks and her own ragged breath in her throat.

Finally, after who knows how much running, Lucina caught sight of the turn that led onto her street. She was almost home. She gritted her teeth and, digging her heels into the ground, put on a burst of speed, hightailing herself down the street, past the mailbox and decorational statues, and up the steps of 01 Exalt Dr. 

Lucina took one last frantic look behind herself and fumbled in her coat for the keys. She found them in her left pocket and hurriedly stuck them into the keyhole, turning the lock and rushing inside. She slammed the door behind her and bolted it shut.

“DAD!” she shouted.

Chrom looked up from his newspaper and ran over to her. “Somethin’ wrong honey?”

Lucina hugged him. “There was...there was this  _ thing _ , ‘n it was followin’ me...and I saw it, but I could only see it with my bad eye! And...and then I ran...and I didn’t stop runnin’...”

Chrom held his daughter close and inched towards the window, carefully looking outside. After a moment, he relaxed a little. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone outside now, honey. You’re safe.”

“Well...” Lucina said. “I...I think it stopped when I got outta the forest...I just didn’t wanna stop runnin’...” She shivered. “...but...it wasn’t a person, Dad...’least I’m pretty sure it wasn’t...”

Chrom shook his head and smiled gently. “I’m sure it was just your eye playin’ tricks on ya.” He gently stroked Lucina’s cheek. “It’ll be okay...what happened to your eyepatch?”

Lucina froze and felt her pockets. It wasn’t there. She zipped open her backpack and leafed through it. “...Dang...musta dropped it...”

Chrom frowned. “Why’d ya take it off, darlin’? You know your good eye works better with it covered.”

“...’Cause people made fun’a it...” Lucina said, looking at her feet in shame. “Took it off… guess I forgot to put it back on...”

Chrom leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Alright. Try to find it tomorrow, alright?”

Lucina nodded. “Alright, Dad.” 

“Good girl, now up to your room.”

Lucina nodded and ran up the spiral staircase to her room, right across from her cousins’ and next to her sister’s. Her sister Xia’rok was out at art class, Owain was at junior theatre practice, and Brady was...doing something, he didn’t talk about his hobbies much.

Lucina sat down on her bed and sighed. She still felt...shaken about whatever that creature had been...but at least she felt much safer. 

Suddenly there was a heavy knock at the her bedroom door.

“Who is it?” Lucina asked. 

“S’me,” replied a gruff voice, rougher than even her father’s voice. Brady, of course.

“Oh, hey. C’mon in,” Lucina said.

Brady, a large boy for his age, awkwardly waddled forward. He was fiddling with something in his hands.

“Something wrong?” Lucina asked. Did he see one too?

Brady walked up and held something out for Lucina. “... Here...it’ll...keep you safe…” he said softly. He was holding a bracelet, with a strange symbol carved in wood.

“... Wait, what?” she asked. She stared at the symbol, then back up at him. “Wait, d’you know about...whatever that thing was?”

Brady squirmed and scratched his arm. He looked down, staring at the floor. “Ah...somethin’ is...followin’...I think...this will help...”

“... Huh.” Lucina shrugged. Brady tended to know things the others didn’t...so she took it in stride. “Thanks, cuz.” 

Brady smiled and bent over a little, staring Lucina in the eyes for a moment. “...I...based it off your eye…” he said before reaching out and giving her a hug...then walking out of the bedroom without another word.

Lucina stared at it silently. It...did look like the weird symbol etched into her pupil. And like the birthmark her dad had...and the one on Owain’s arm, and her aunt Emmeryn’s forehead. It was a family thing, she supposed.

Lucina put on the bracelet. It did make her feel safer. The world seemed to...brighten. It was nice. She felt relaxed, enough to forget what happened earlier in the forest and focus on her homework. 

\---

Kjelle pounded her chest, her football armor shaking. “Come on, Severa! Charge me, you rat!” she taunted. “You won’t get past me!” she declared. Severa was the fastest runner on the team...if Kjelle could stop her, she could catch anyone.

Severa darted around and charged, to Kjelle’s eyes almost a blur on the field. The sound of her rushed footsteps were the only sound in the quiet field.

Kjelle dove to the side, tracking the red blur. She tackled Severa to the ground, barely catching her by her waist and pulling her to the ground.

Severa grunted as she hit the ground and chuckled. “Heh...holy heck you actually caught me...”

“Barely…” Kjelle muttered as she got up on her hands and knees. “Took myself down with you...not useful...need to get in front of you to be fast enough.”

“...well...” Severa said as she dusted herself off. “...still got way closer than anyone else so far.”

Kjelle nodded as she rolled onto her back and stared at the sky. “Yeah...can’t believe no one came out to practice with us.”

“Bunch of slackers,” Severa said. She looked over at the bleachers, taking in the serene, chilly atmosphere. “...it’s weird, being on the field when nobody’s here...feels empty...” she rambled. “Makes me feel really small...”

“You are small,” Kjelle joked, trying to break the tension.

“Compared to you? I’m a month older than you and you’re still like three inches taller than everyone!” Severa chuckled, and though the laughter was genuine, the silence of the field made it sound miniscule and forced.

Kjelle sighed and looked up at the fog in the sky. “...does everything feel...stuffy to you, sis?” she muttered softly.

“...yeah, kinda...” Severa shivered and shuffled closer to Kjelle. She felt a sort of...prickle on the back of her neck, like her hair was standing on end. “...feels weird...like...” But she couldn’t find a word. Severa trailed off into silence, staring nervously around the field and the school it overlooked.

Kjelle reached out and pulled her sister closer. “...something’s wrong…” she muttered softly. “...stay close...let’s go inside the gym...okay?”

Severa nodded. She looked over at the school...and froze. Her eyes went wide and she unconsciously balled her hands into fists.

Kjelle noticed her freeze and looked down at her. “Hey hey...what’s wrong?” she said very softly. “Come on, let’s go.”

Severa shakily pointed up to the school. “...there’s something watching us...”

Kjelle lifted her gaze, and froze. On top of the school...standing on the roof, was a dark figure. They were staring down at the two sisters...with glowing eyes.

“Sis...sis get to the gym,” Kjelle ordered, pushing Severa towards the gym. Severa nodded and bolted, running as fast as she could. When she looked back, the figure was gone. She looked around in a panic, and...saw the figure looking out from a window. 

A window two floors below the roof. Kjelle kept running. In the gym there were ways to protect herself and her sister if she needed to...bats and other things. She’s sure her mom would get it if something broke. Kjelle followed Severa into the gym, pushing her into the bleachers.

“Stay here...something is watching us…”

“Y-yeah, no DUH!” Severa said. She was biting one of her ponytails, jaw clenched in fear. “...d-don’t just go out and fight him, idiot, get a weapon first...”

“I’m not gonna fight him. I’m gonna grab a bat,” Kjelle hissed before darting away, slipping into the supply room. She came back out with a bat and grabbed her sister, pulling her up to the ‘vip box’. Well...that’s what it’s supposed to be...it’s just a second floor students chill in while nothing is happening.

Kjelle hefted her sister up and gestured for her to duck into a corner, then she inched towards the only entrance. “...let’s go, fucker…” she muttered, and waited.

She waited there for several minutes as the eerie silence descended again. She couldn’t hear any more footsteps..but that feeling of being watched returned. She warily looked around. The person, whoever they were, wasn’t in the hall...and they hadn’t gotten in somehow...

Then her eyes caught on the window.

It was looking in through the window. The window that was two stories off the ground. 

Kjelle trembled and ducked behind a corner, shivering nervously. This is wrong...this is bad...they’re in danger, but nothing was happening.

“...Sev?” Kjelle softly called out. “You...still there…?” Severa didn’t respond. Kjelle trembled and turned back to where she had left her sister. “Severa? Come on, talk to me.”

“...help...,” she heard Severa faintly say.

Kjelle turned on a dime and scrambled back to her sister, baseball bat ready to strike anyone who dare to hurt her.

Severa had wedged herself in the corner, fidgeting frantically...and on the other side of the box was...the creature. Well, it was there for a moment...then it flickered and faded. She was staring directly at it and it had disappeared. That isn’t how anything works.

Kjelle growled and swung at the space where the creature was. Things don’t just disappear...they can’t. Though still...nothing but air. Kjelle turned and darted over to her sister, setting herself in front of the smaller girl.

Severa was twitching and staring off into the middle distance but, after a few moments, she recognized her sister and began to relax...at least enough to unclench her jaw and yell “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?”

Kjelle cringed as the shouted echoed through the gym, breaking the delicate silence. The feeling seemed to be disappearing now...they were gone. Kjelle suddenly hugged her older sister and shook, dropping the bat on the floor as she did so.

“...Severa...you’re okay...right?” she asked in a shaky voice. Being the largest...she was supposed to protect her smaller sister...but she was younger.

“...n-no...” Severa muttered. “I-I mean...I’m alive but...that...that was...was that a fucking ghost??” She trembled. “...those eyes...”

Kjelle trembled and just whimpered. She was scared. The adrenaline was fading, and she didn’t know how to deal with this now. She knew Severa was freaked out...but she couldn’t calm herself down.

“...sh-should we call Mom?” Severa suggested after a little while.

Kjelle simply trembled again. A weak voice rose from the large girl. “...I d-don’t...don’t know...please...b-be the big sister…”

Severa’s voice cracked as she said, “O-okay...we’re gonna call Mom. We’re gonna stand up...and...and stand in front of the school until she comes...and then she’ll take us home. And we’re not gonna lose sight of each other.” She gave her best approximation of a confident smirk as she pulled out her phone. “D-don’t worry...we’re gonna be alright.”

Kjelle nodded and let herself be lifted to her feet. She grabbed the bat she had left behind. She was shaking...not thinking well. But she trusted her sister to lead her to safety until the panic could subside. She wobbled behind the smaller girl.

“...Sh-should we...put the...b-bat back…?” she asked very softly, betraying her past.

Severa paused, then nodded. “Yeah...Mother would be mad...”

Kjelle nodded and her sister took the bat. She put the bat behind their mother’s desk, then led her out of gym and towards the courtyard, where phone signal was the best, never letting Kjelle slip from her grasp.

As she walked, she dialed her mom’s number. After ringing once, she answered. 

“Heya kiddo, what is it?”

“Finished practice early, mom,” Severa responded in a false-confident tone. 

“Severa…” her mom had a knowing tone. “What happened?”

“There was someone watching us, or...something...I dunno, I didn’t get a good look. Kjelle is panicking, she doesn’t feel safe. We need you to come pick us up...please.”

“Alright. I’m comin, sweetie. Stay put,” Sully responded reassuringly. 

“Thanks, mom,” Severa responded. “See you soon.”

As she hung up, she heard Kjelle was starting to mutter to herself. “...I’ve just...gone mad...that’s it…” she muttered. “I’ve broken all the way...that’s...all…”

“No, no, no you didn’t,” Severa said. “I saw it too. We...you saw a weird shadow with glowing eyes too, right?”

Kjelle nodded and shivered. “Y-yeah...there...there were...there had to be more than one...right…?” Kjelle shivered and looked back at the school. “It was on the roof...then...in the school…”

“Yeah...yeah there must have been,” Severa said.

Kjelle shivered and closed her eyes. “It was in the school...it was in the school…” She kept repeating that, dropping to the ground. “...it’s not safe…”

Severa glanced over, against her better judgement. “Well it isn’t anymore.”

Kjelle trembled and covered her head, curling up on the ground. “S-Sev..I can’t...can’t think...I-...” Kjelle trembled, falling to a silent whimper.

Severa knelt down and hugged her sister. “Don’t worry, it’s okay...it’ll all be okay...” She racked her brain, trying to remember the songs that calmed Kjelle down. She took an unsteady breath and started to sing an old lullaby, Frère Jacques, something their mother’s sang all the time when they were younger.

Kjelle relaxed from the tune, beginning to hum along with a small smile. Then she hugged her sister.

“...thank you..” she muttered softly.

Severa smiled. “You’re welcome, sis.”

“...you’re a good big sister…” Kjelle muttered gently, not speaking any louder, knowing such mushy things weren’t something Severa enjoyed hearing...especially other people.

“...nah...you’re just a good little sister,” Severa responded. 

Kjelle chuckled and closed her eyes. “...whatever you say sis…”

\----------

There was quiet, a familiar quiet. The house was empty, her sister, Noire, was out doing...well she wasn’t really sure, and her mothers, Aversa and Flavia, were out working. Saria, having finished with her homework early as always, had decided to get a start on her daily chores and felt her way to the kitchen to wash dishes.

But as she worked...the quiet began to feel...wrong. It had started with a pressure in her skull, like boiling water in a teapot-- and yet nothing in the kitchen felt amiss. It was late, too late for the kitchen to be anything but silent, and yet it felt too silent. She thought at first that it was just the weather changing-- air pressure giving her headaches, and all. But her keen ears picked up something odd about the quiet-- too quiet for her to be satisfied. No, something was very off.

The birds outside had gone silent. She heard nothing of the owls that lurked in the woods behind her house, and nothing of the crickets that usually chirped from the lamplit gutters and hedges of suburbia, as if their concert had come to an unsettlingly harsh close. Even the creaking of the swing set in the backyard felt quieted, muffled by the oppressive silence that sent goosebumps up her arms.

Then, Saria felt something, something on the back of her neck. Not a hand, or her hair… but something that felt  _ wrong, _ like crackling energy. Raw and powerful, something not of the world Saria knew.

Saria’s hands went still around the dishes. She let the sponge fall from her hand into the water in the sink. She dared not breathe; if she breathed, the raw energy she felt tickling the back of her neck would vanish before she could tell what it was.

All at once, she moved-- hand around her cane, swishing out low, out, as if to whack in the shins of whoever was lurking, whatever thing was in the kitchen with her. But there was nothing...no that wasn’t right. There was something...the familiar air resistance felt harder...like a bit of the fog that she felt outside had materialized in her kitchen. Then it was gone, there was nothing again, nothing until the clatter of her cane against the dishwasher.

Saria stood frozen for several moments. Soon, she heard something soft papping its way down the hall. For a moment she tensed again, until she heard the accompanying purr as the soft mass of her cat, Merlin, rubbed against her legs.

She sank to the kitchen floor, still somewhat tensed in case whatever it was came back. Merlin climbed into her lap and sniffed carefully-- like he was trying to pick out the scent of the intruder Saria could’ve sworn she’d felt, but, from the sound of his frustrated meow, he couldn’t pick up anything.

“Some familiar you are,” Saria muttered, stroking his back. “You weren’t even here when I felt that…  _ thing _ .”

_ “Mrp,” _ Merlin replied. Saria supposed he had a point. And whatever it was she’d felt, it hadn’t stayed long. She could already hear the owls returning to their perches, and the crickets’ usual nighttime concerto of chirping resumed.

Still, Saria wasn’t satisfied.  _ Something _ had been in her house, and it wasn’t something of this world.

After about a minute, Saria stood again and resumed the dishwork. As her work came to a close, two new sounds added themselves to the soft cacophony of the night; the  _ tap-tap-tap  _ of sneakers on a sidewalk, and someone’s short, ragged breaths, like they were fleeing something for their lives.

The  _ tap-tap-tapping _ changed from the sound on the paved cobblestone to the sound of feet scurrying up the steps to her house’s door. Saria heard the click of the door being unlocked, then hastily slammed and relocked, accompanied by a heavy, relieved breath.

“MRS. AVERSA? MRS. FLAVIA? SARIA? IT’S ME, NOIRE!” Saria heard her little sister shout. Technically Noire was her foster sister, but she was her sister nonetheless-- and she sounded very distressed. 

Saria grabbed her cane and hurried to the door. She felt Noire immediately wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug, clinging to her as if letting go would mean falling off the edge of the world.

Saria returned the hug and Noire burst into tears.

“I-I saw this… this THING!” Noire sobbed. “I-it… it was just...big an’ shady with these glowing white eyes… and… and it was… it was so  _ quiet _ … like, n-not a good quiet, b-but a… a  _ wrong _ quiet! And… and it  _ wouldn’t stop staring at me... _ ” 

Saria felt a chill down her spine. She hugged Noire a little tighter. It felt like more than just a weird coincidence that Noire had seen something on her way home, at about the same time Saria felt that creature in the kitchen.

“Something strange is going on,” Saria mumbled, more to herself than to Noire.

Noire clung to Saria’s shirt. “Y-you felt it too?” she asked, sniffling. “The weird feeling? Like.. like someone’s watching?”

“I felt it,” Saria agreed. “Noire, do you know if anyone else has felt something strange lately?”

Noire rubbed her runny nose. Saria took a napkin out of her pocket and pressed it into Noire’s little hand. “I dunno,” Noire admitted. “I haven’t, um… I haven’t asked. I-I will, though.”

Saria’d have to do some of her own research, if this wasn’t an isolated incident. She almost hoped it was. All the sage in the world wouldn’t help if the entire town was being overrun with strange creatures enveloped in the upside-down.

Noire nestled her head closer to Saria, trying to hide from the world in the folds of Saria’s shirt. “I don’t wanna fight any demons, Saria,” she mumbled. “But I’m scared.”

“It’ll be okay,” Saria promised. What else could she do? “We’ll find a way to deal with all of this.”

  
  


\---

Inigo smiled as he put in his earbuds and stepped into his backyard. It was time for dance practice. His mom was at the studio teaching adults how to dance. He wished that he could dance like her someday...but for now, all he could do is practice.

He smiled as the lilting, serene music started up. Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky, as Mother was fond of pointing out. The Nutcracker was the most basic of the ballets he’d seen, but mom said it was good practice and most started with it, so… 

As the music played and he danced, he began to regret his choice of footwear. Ballet wasn’t a recommended dancing course, nor the one he wanted to pursue, but, again, it made for good practice-- though doing it in sneakers was a really really bad idea. Still, he persisted.

After a few minutes, the volume on the song went down a bit. Inigo reached down and turned the volume up.

But it kept going down. He stopped dancing and pulled out his mp3 player (cause this is the 90s yall). He unplugged his earbuds and turned up his mp3.

The volume was on full. If it was working right, Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies would be audible from a few streets down in either direction. But it’s like his phone was playing through a pillow...and just getting softer.

“...huh. Weird,” Inigo mumbled. He put down his phone and attempted to recall the song...but he couldn’t. Everything was just...silent.

Suddenly, Inigo felt that ever-familiar prickle of anxiety and fear...this time with even more of an edge to it.

Someone was staring at him.

Inigo turned around slowly, cringing, and darted his eyes around the yard and the tops of each fence, trying to see who was looking at him. “Hello?” he called out, his voice piercing the silence but being almost instantly swallowed by it.

Then..he saw it. Across the town, standing on the roof of Nah’s house...this...dark shape with piercing white eyes. Just...staring into his soul. Inigo felt like his feet were rooted to the ground. There was only one thing he could do.

“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!” he shrieked, his voice seeming to be swallowed by the fog.

Inigo faintly heard a loud clattering noise and a door slamming. Then the sliding door slammed open and his mother Miriel dashed out.

“Sweet child, what is the matter?” Miriel asked as she knelt in front of him, formal as always but still very obviously concerned.

Inigo shivered and looked at his mother, then up towards Nah’s house. “There...there was...something...on-on the roof…up th-there...”

Miriel looked up towards where her son had seen the figure. “That is a decidedly vacant roof...was someone standing there?”

Inigo nodded and whimpered softly. “Y-yeah...they...they were watching me. It was...so weird…”

Miriel frowned. “I’ll file a police report posthaste. Do you need a hug, Inigo?”

Inigo nodded and stepped towards his mother, falling into a warm hug. She was always stiff in speech and mannerisms...but she gave the best hugs.

\---

Rose paced. She didn’t think of herself as the pacing type, really-- but sometimes events made one anxious enough that pacing was necessary. One such event: Your best friend calling and saying she’s on her way over to fight monsters.

There weren’t very many other ways one would normally interpret that, but Rose (who thought herself very good at picking up meaning where others may have missed it, thank you very much) knew Jeanne better than anyone. Could the monsters be metaphorical? Though from what Rose knew about Jeanne (which was quite a lot), Jeanne was the type to bury figurative monsters in bravado, performance, and fluorescent clothing rather than try to fight them head-on. And anyway, it seemed really, really unlikely that Jeanne wanted to come over to talk about her feelings (even though it definitely wouldn’t have hurt anything).

So it was almost a relief when Jeanne, grey eyes shining with determination, dropped a bag full of sporting equipment on Rose’s bed and asked her how to get into the basement.

For a moment all Rose could do was stare. “Beg pardon?”

“The  _ basement _ , Rose, how do we  _ get into it _ ,” Jeanne repeated, slowly, like Rose was five. Rose gave her an unamused look, and Jeanne held up her hands in silent apology.

“There’s a set of doors around the side of the house,” Rose replied. “If I recall correctly, anyway. Might I ask why you want to get into the basement? Dad’s said it’s off-limits. Something about mildew and roaches.”

“Not I,” Jeanne decided, unzipping the bag and pulling out a wooden baseball bat full of nails, hammered into it at odd angles. “We--” she dropped the bat and pulled out a big rubber mallet, a collapsible golf club, and a Bowie knife, all of which she dropped onto Rose’s soft pink duvet-- “Are going down into your basement in order to fight monsters.”

Rose narrowed her eyes, examining Jeanne’s face closely for signs of jest or posturing. Seeing none, she felt even more suspicious. “You want to fight the monsters in my basement why?”

Jeanne hefted the golf club like she was testing how much force it’d take to crack a skull with it. “Easy,” she replied. “Those sons’a bitches scared my sister. I’m gonna make ‘em pay for it.”

The protective sibling instinct-- Rose nodded sagely. If anything scared Teddy, she’d fight it, too. Too bad Teddy was old enough now that the only things that scared him were student loans. Rose couldn’t very well fight those.

“Alright, monster hunting,” she decided, shrugging and picking up the Bowie knife. “You expect to do that with some weapons you found in your garage?”

Jeanne put up her hands, tucking the golf club into her belt loop. The weatherproof fabric of her rainbow-colored windbreaker shuffled loudly like it was screaming for mercy from the fashion police. “You keep saying that like you’re not going down there with me,” she replied. “You think I’m going into your basement alone? Fuck that. That’s way too creepy, and I want a witness if I go out in a blaze of glory. Share my story with the world n’all. If I’m goin’ out, I’m goin’ out swingin’.”

It was sound logic. Very adolescent, and it probably hadn’t been thought through at all-- but Rose, mature though she may be, was also fourteen and didn’t see any better way to do it. So she stood from her bed and grabbed her bow from its place on her dresser, where her dad had told her it stayed unless she was practicing-- safety concerns and all. But what her dad didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

One thing stuck out to her, though. Taking the arrows from the bin in her closet, she slid them into her quiver and buckled it to her belt. Jeanne put the knife in the pocket inside her jacket and slung the bat over her shoulder, narrowly missing Rose’s ceiling fan.

“What exactly was your sister doing in my basement, anyway?” Rose asked, leading the way down the stairs and out the side door of the old farmhouse.

“Well, she wasn’t,” Jeanne explained. “She saw ‘em on the corner of Murkwood and Banks, but I figure-- freaks are probably gone by now. But where do creepy monsters appear? Attics and basements. You’ve got both. It’s as good a starting place as any, yeah?”

“What if they’re in the attic?”

“Then we look there, too. Couldn’t hurt, s’all I’m saying.”

Rose pursed her lips. Jeanne took a flashlight out of her jacket and flicked it on, dust of the basement filtering through the beam’s light. Cobwebs choked every corner, hanging from the metal support beams and falling on an army’s worth of boxes. It was exactly the creepy kind of place sister-scaring monsters might hide.

Jeanne gestured with her shoulder. “After you,” she said.

Rose smirked. “How chivalrous.”

The two of them entered the basement and began peering around the boxes littering the room. It always gave Rose the creeps, without fail. She’d gotten lost in the basement when she was little, once. Took two hours to find her way out and by that time she had been crying for about a quarter of that time. 

She reached out behind herself and grabbed onto Jeanne’s hand.

“Rose! Wh-what are-” Jeanne sputtered, blushing and almost dropping her bat.

“I don’t want to get lost down here,” Rose said. “You’re my pal, we have to stick together.”

“R-right,” Jeanne said, looking away. “Gal pals n’all that. Gotcha...”

The two of them fell silent again and began looking once more through the hazy beams of their flashlights, along the dusty shelves. In the almost suffocating darkness, the basement could stretch on for miles without anyone noticing.

After a few more minutes in the darkness, Rose noticed something. She was used to hearing the roar of the boiler in the basement, or the hum of it not working or being shut off... but not even the hum was there. The whole thing was shut off. Aside from their muted footsteps, there wasn’t a single sound in the whole basement.

“Rose? Why’re you stopping?” Jeanne whispered. She didn’t know why she was whispering...just felt somewhat right, like if she talked too loudly she’d wake up something that shouldn’t be woken.

“I...” Rose froze and gripped Jeanne’s hand a little tighter. She felt a chill go down her spine.

“Rose, what’s going on?” Jeanne asked again. “Rose??”

Rose slowly turned over to her, eyes wide with fear. “There’s... _ there’s something watching us... _ ”

Jeanne almost jumped and frantically shined her flashlight around the basement. “Where?”

Rose didn’t move...instead slowly raising her hand and pointing her thumb behind herself. “ _ It’s right behind me. _ ”

Jeanne slowly turned her head to look behind them...and saw this huge shape, looming over Rose. It wasn’t really doing anything...just staring with these massive, unblinking white eyes.

As fast as she could, Jeanne grabbed the bat off her back and whirled around, intending to crack this thing’s head open. 

The bat sailed completely through and clattered to the floor. The thing didn’t move.

Jeanne dropped the bat and grabbed Rose’s hand tighter. “Rose...when I say run, we run.”

Rose barely had a moment to nod before Jeanne screamed. “ _ RUUUUUUN _ !!!”

Rose and Jeanne bolted, the creature’s gaze continuing to watch Rose but paying no mind to Jeanne. The moment they slammed the door behind themselves, the creature flickered and vanished. The boiler roared back to life the moment it was gone.


	2. We Should Do Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids decide to do things and stuff gets explained.

The next day, at lunch, Lucina was talking with Kjelle, Gerome, and Brady when she felt a tiny tap on her shoulder.

“U-um...L-Lucina?” she heard a quiet voice say. Lucina turned around. It was...that foster kid she helped out once. Nora? No, Noire.

“Oh, hey, Noire,” Lucina said. “What’s the problem?” She had a feeling she already knew. 

Noire looked around, then whispered, “Did you seen those...uh...weird quiet staticky monsters yesterday? Sorry, that sounds crazy, n-nevermind...”

Lucina froze. It was still fresh in her mind...she had assumed that was just her overactive imagination, or her cataract making her see things again. If Noire had seen them too...and her sister Xia’rok had said that Wolfram had...

“Yes, I saw them,” Lucina said gravely. “Did you?”

Noire frantically nodded. “And...and and Saria...w-well she didn’t SEE them, but she said one was in...in the kitchen with her...and I asked Severa and she and Kjelle saw one too!”

Severa and Kjelle too? And even  _ Saria? _ Lucina leaned back over the table, looking at her friends for confirmation. Kjelle was fidgeting uncomfortably with her coat zipper.

“Did any of you see them too?” Lucina asked.

Kjelle cringed. “They...they were t-terrifying. I hit one and it just  _ vanished _ !”

Brady shakily nodded. “Y-yeah...there were a bunch of them...n’ they were scaring Yarne...”

Gerome simply nodded as well.

Lucina shivered and gritted her teeth. Everything seemed a shade colder now, like a chill breeze had blown over the school. She rolled up her sweater neck and frowned. “...Okay. We need to figure this out.”

“Um...” Noire tapped Lucina on her shoulder and shyly spoke up. “M-maybe we c-could get everyone who’s seen them, and...and meet by the old playground? T-to plan and stuff...”

“Good idea!” Lucina said. Old playground would be...well, still suspicious but less so than if they just all crowded into her house.

\---

“I suppose you’re all wondering why I called you here.” 

It was impressive, really. Lucina had somehow managed to muster pretty much all of the kids in town. They sort of had leaders...specifically, her, Brady, Laurent, Saria, Inigo, Yarne, and Gerome. The other kids were somewhat scattered around the playground, Owain and Cynthia having a mini-fight on the monkey bars while Cynthia’s babysitter Est looked on nervously, Nah clinging to her leg. 

Sheriff Grizzham had come by to drop his kids off and tried to insist that he be the adult chaperone, but Severa had given him a glare so withering that the six-foot police officer almost bolted into his squad car.

Some of the kids that didn’t often show up were present. 

“Well,” Lucina continued now that she had everyone’s full attention, “It’s because of the...the...” She trailed off, then snapped back to focus. “Item number one! You all know the things that are showing up, what should we call them?”

“Boggarts!” Vaike’s twin daughters, Dandy and Lily, shouted out. The two of them were both as muscular as their father, though Dandy was far more on the heavy side due to her wrestling and boxing hobbies (as well as her appetite), while Lily was much more lean and wiry due to her acrobatics, stuckup veganism, and penchant for parkouring everywhere. The two were dressed in matching blue button-up shirts.

“Shadows!” said Wolfram, the fluffy-haired son of Donnel Thyme (a grocer) and his husband Dr. Henry Corvid, apparently a former surgeon and one of the town crazies. For some reason his outfit always incorporated raspberries. Lucina recalled that he was her little sister Xia’rok’s best (and probable only) friend.

“Demons!” Saria called out.

“Hidebehinds!” Rose said.

“Mystic beasts of dark portent!” That was Owain, no doubt. He was hanging upside down from the monkey bars now, the short cape he wore everywhere almost brushing the ground.

Laurent, who was wearing his signature black-and-red raincoat and pointy rainhat over a faded Back to the Future shirt, politely raised his hand. “I’ve been studying my mythology and they seem to line up most closely with the California cryptids known as ‘dark watchers’.”

Lucina nodded. “Alright. Let’s vote. Anyone for boggarts?”

Dandy and Lily raised their hands.

“Anyone for demons?”

Saria, Noire, and Brady raised their hands.

“Shadows?”

Wolfram and Xia’rok raised their hands.

“Hidebehinds?”

Rose and her siblings Eddy and Teddy raised their hands. Rose was a tall, lanky girl, with fluffy flowing greyish-brown hair and a rose-patterned sundress under a very fashionable windbreaker. Her brother Teddy (whom Severa insisted was really named Tederick) was an equally tall, chubby boy with shorter fluffy brown hair and the first bits of stubble appearing on his arms and chin, dressed in a plain grey t-shirt and long blue sweatpants. His passions tended towards baking, and he always tried to find out what pastries and candies each of his friends liked best. Their older sister Eddy was a mousy-haired athlete, on the baseball team with Lucina and tended to hang around her whenever she could. She had a far more lackadaisical attitude than the rest of her family, probably a response to stress. 

The three of them were the kids of Officer Frederick Grizzham and his husband Virion, who was apparently some rich guy from France that her dad went to college with. Officer Fred, as Lucina’s dad called him, was a longtime friend of the Grace family, so much so that when they had moved to Washington to get away from the family reputation (the people in her old hometown still call her dad ‘the middle Grace sister’, a term that depresses him to no end), Frederick had come along. Aunt Maribelle had too, but she was already married to Aunt Lissa.

Lucina had a feeling someone else had raised their hand but she couldn’t see who...just a fourth hand somewhere. Didn’t really matter, probably.

“Alright...and dark watchers?”

Every other kid in the playground raised their hands.

“Alright. That’s...overwhelming victory.”

Laurent smugly pushed up his glasses. “Dark watchers it is then.”

Lucina nodded. “Now...what do we know about them, besides big, dark, and staring?”

“I think they can fly!” Kjelle shouted. “There was one looking in from the gym window, that thing’s two stories up in the air and I didn’t hear a ladder.”

“It can teleport too,” Severa added. “It was on the roof, I looked away, I looked back and it was on the fourth floor.”

Brady nudged Yarne. Yarne exclaimed, “Th-they showed up at exactly 6:14 AM two days ago! I-I wrote it down...a-and there’s at least six of them! And when three of them stare at you...w-well, Brady got a nosebleed and a headache...”

“Intense arcane energy,” Saria commented, steepling her fingers in front of her face while her elbows rested on the table. Her pale blue eyes stared at nothing at all. “That must be what it is.”

“No shit, they’re magic, Peaches,” Severa replied.

“Arcane, not magic,” Saria insisted. “Brady, if your nose was bleeding, then clearly you have a sensitivity to their energy.”

“The only question is,” Laurent began. “Is why is that? What makes Brady sensitive but the rest of us, not so? We have to experiment-- where do they congregate? I want to run tests.”

Lucina could guess what these tests entailed. “We’re not going to antagonize spirits for testing’s sake,” she insisted. Laurent sighed, but knew when he was defeated. 

“Now what we NEED,” Owain interjected, jumping off his perch on the monkey bars and striding over to the table, “Is something to defend ourselves with! I happen to have brought along a few prototypes.” He grinned, pulled out a stuffed backpack and dumped out a ton of modified toy weapons, what looked like an improvised crossbow, some scissors fashioned and sharpened like daggers, and various and sundry other improvised sharp things.

“Is  _ any _ of that safe?” Laurent asked, leaning back so far he had almost toppled away from the table. “Those look held together with duct tape, paper clips, and misguided enthusiasm.”

“They totally work!” Owain boasted, standing up tall and striking a pose that he thought made himself look heroic. “I tested them and everything! Precision engineering from a hero like me!”

“Is that why there’s a Smashmouth CD stuck in your mom’s apple tree?” Xia’rok asked. 

“Maybe!” Owain crossed his arms. “You’ll never be able to prove anything!”

Several kids snickered. 

“AHEM!” Rose shouted, standing up in the back. She stormed up to the merry-go-round table and stared at Lucina, then gestured to the empty spot next to her. “MY GIRLFRIEND HAS SOMETHING TO SAY!” Girlfriend was still a new word for the teen, or at least using it in the context of, well, actually  _ having _ a girlfriend. Made her heart flutter a bit. 

Lucina blinked a few times and looked next to Rose. Sure enough there was Jeanne, resplendent in a garish rainbow windbreaker, scraggly brown-black hair tied back in a messy ponytail. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t see her.”

Jeanne frowned and puffed out her chest. “WELL! What I was _ trying _ to say is, sorry Owain, but I tried ta bash one of ‘em on the head with a baseball bat, and guess what it did?”

Janne leaned forward for the dramatic pause. “ABSOLUTELY JACK SHIT! NOTHING! THE THING DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE IT!”

Owain looked at her in confusion, then over at his cousin Brady. “Wait, what? Brady said he tackled one and made it bleed...”

Brady shrugged and scratched on the everpresent scar on his face. “Wasn’t me. It was the brand. The brand hurts ‘em.”

Lucina raised her eyebrow, then nodded. “Alright, everyone, there’s a way to test a fighting technique!”

She noticed the collective “Huh?” from the kids and continued. “Everyone, take pictures of Brady and Owain’s Brands. Use that as reference, put them on stuff, see if they work!”

The rest of the kids each murmured in agreement ranging from proud to misbelieving, and for once Lucina felt like the team leader her parents always said she was.


End file.
